1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more specifically, it relates to an electronic camera provided with a display device which is capable of displaying an image obtained through photographing.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic camera records image data obtained through photoelectric conversion performed by an image-capturing element such as a CCD of a subject image formed by a photographic optical system. The image data are recorded in a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory which is either internally provided or externally mounted at the electronic camera. A non volatile memory does not require electric power to hold stored image data. Thus, a large volume of image data obtained through photographing can be stored and held within the electronic camera without causing the battery to become depleted.
In an electronic camera internally provided with a display device such as a TFT liquid crystal panel, image data obtained through photographing and recorded in the non-volatile memory can be read out and then displayed, i.e., reproduced at the liquid crystal display device. It is a highly convenient arrangement in that since the image can be viewed immediately after the photographing operation, a photographing operation can be performed again without delay if satisfactory photographing results are not achieved.
However, there is a problem in that when reproducing image data recorded as described above, a long time is required to complete the display of the image on the display device. The higher number of pixels at the image-capturing element and the low access speed of the non-volatile memory are main causes that make the image display a lengthy process. Namely, as the number of pixels at the image-capturing element increases, the volume of image data corresponding to one screen also increases. As a result, it sometimes takes more than one second to read out the large volume of image data from the non-volatile memory with its low access speed, which results in poor operability during an image reproduction operation at the electronic camera.